The Charm Of Face Time

By Massimo Calabresi/Washington

Condoleezza Rice has a reputation for toughness, and in the first seven months of the Administration she has lived up to it. Originally pegged as a peacemaker between hard-liners and moderates, Rice turned out to be the driving force behind the Administration's early "my-way-or-the-highway" tone on such issues as Russia, North Korea and the Kyoto protocol on climate change. A diplomat meeting with her last spring complained that for the U.S. to drop Kyoto would set the fight against global warming back 10 years. Rice thought that was one more reason not to delay the treaty's inevitable end. And she told him so.

Rice's personal story of hard work helps explain her tenacity. She grew up under segregation in Birmingham, Ala., willed her way to college at age 15 and eventually became a Soviet expert in the White House of Bush I--finding time along the way to become an accomplished pianist, ice skater and sports buff. Her hard-line positions have surprised even seasoned alumni of Republican administrations. J. Stapleton Roy, Bush Sr.'s ambassador to China, says Rice is "prone to the naive view that we are strong and they are weak and we should ruthlessly exploit that." Rice, like her boss, has a rebellious streak.

In the first Bush Administration, Rice was close to National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft, and she has parlayed that into even closer ties with Dubya. She filled the empty vessel of the candidate's foreign policy during the campaign and now spends occasional weekends with him and his family at Camp David. She complements Colin Powell, but it's clear who is steering the ship. Her extra time with Bush, she says, "gives us a chance to step back...and talk more about our broader objectives."

Rice's unilateralist tone irritates G.O.P. moderates. She froze Russia out for the first three months of the Administration, pushed a tougher public line on China, and questioned both current talks with North Korea and a previous agreement. That approach is worlds apart from the style of Scowcroft and the President's dad. "One of his father's great skills was reaching out to other people," says a senior Republican statesman. Bush Sr. speaks often with his son but is careful not to appear to push him to the center.

Since its early days, Powell has nudged the Administration toward a more centrist, multilateralist approach. Rice now admits that Kyoto hurt the image of the Bush team, and she struggles to convince allies and adversaries that she's not as unilateralist as she appears. But first impressions last. The U.S. can still look as if it's trying to set the rules for the rest of the world--and then break them. When pressed on the source of that impression, Rice only bolsters it: "There are times when the U.S. isn't going to be in a position of agreement with everybody else," she says, "and given our particular role in the world, we have an obligation to do what we think is right." And she'll tell them so.

--By Massimo Calabresi/Washington